This American sycamore and red spruce guitar is rounding third base headed for home. The finish has been built up and now I’m on to compacting and burnishing the French polish finish. I still love the sycamore!
The Adirondack spruce tops shows virtually no run out and beautiful silking.
Rosewood binding forms the edges of this American sycamore guitar.
A view of the rosewood end graft.
The mostly finished maple neck.
The mostly finished maple headstock.
Between coats, I’m working the last piece to shape for this guitar: the pyramid-style bridge made of African blackwood.
To make a bridge, I first dimension the block, then drill the pin holes and route the saddle slot.
I shape the notch between the pyramid and the center bar then start chiseling to create the pyramid.
Once the chisel has formed the faces of the pyramid, out come the rasps and files to refine the shape.
This American sycamore and red spruce guitar is coming right along. I’ve completed the woodworking and am deep into the finishing. The box sounds and looks wonderful–sycamore has almost unbelievable figure naturally and my previous sycamore guitars have given me some good practice on getting the most out of this wood. The adjustable neck joint front loads a lot of what is typically final setup work, so this guitar will be playable very soon!
The top and back plate are braced and ready for assembly.
The sycamore back is attached to the rim assembly first.
The channel for the back binding has been routed.
The binding and purfling need to be bent before attempting to install them.
I work the neck with a spokeshave, forming facets that echo the general profile to be refined later by rasp.
Binding and purfling have been installed and scraped flush. I’ve also cut the neck pocket.
The neck has been fretted–I love the all-black look on this guitar..
I’ve slotted the headstock and shaped and sanded the transtions and overall shape.
All profiled and ready for finishing!
With a porous wood like sycamore, the first finishing step is filling the pores.
Pore filled applied and mostly sanded back to wood.
Next, the body is dyed and then sealed with shellac. The figure comes to life!
I’ve made nice progress on a 14-fret auditorium and an orchestra guitar, both made of lovely air-dried walnut. What’s the difference between those models? Mostly scale length. The bodies have the same shape, but the top bracing has been shifted accordingly. (Here’s a comparison graphic of my model sizes.) I used a different rosette and purfling design so that I wouldn’t mix them up at a critical moment.
This pair also uses a hybridized bracing scheme that relies on the X-brace for the overall structure but uses a Torres-inspired lower fan in the belly area. I’ve been very happy with the guitars I’ve built with this scheme, and on this pair I’ve even trimmed down the lower legs of the X-brace a bit more because the fan structure does a nice job of resisting the torque of the strings on the bridge.
The bodies are in good shape, and the necks are well under way. I hope to have these guitars finished in early June. The price will be $2600 for either guitar.
I’m using my X-braced back with the Torres-hybrid fan-braced top on this pair of guitars.
The orchestra’s back has been attached to the rims. The large neck block “arm” houses the neck extension I’ve been using.
These bodies are built with beautiful air-dried walnut backs and sides and adirondack (red) spruce tops.
I love the way fresh binding ledges look. This is cut to accept a tall walnut binding and a short maple purfling line.
I’m using walnut binding on this guitar with maple purfling top and side to create an elegant and clean look.
It was a little surprising to go from having a rim and top and back plates on the bench to suddenly having a guitar in my hands, ready for finish. “Whoa, so this is why people love to build classicals. It’s so much less work!” I thought.